Apple Pay's success has rivals scrambling to catch up, could make PayPal an acquisition target

The strong initial success of Apple Pay, combined with the news that eBay will spin off PayPal, has led to expectations that PayPal could be a major acquisition target for mobile companies vying for users' wallets.

Apple Pay's launch has sent competitors such as Google and Samsung scrambling to respond, through acquisitions or otherwise, according to the Financial Times. As a result, bankers believe that PayPal, which eBay announced this week that it will spin off, could be a potential target for purchase.

eBay will separate from PayPal sometime later this year, which could make the payments service with 150 million users an attractive acquisition target.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Google has apparently been in talks to acquire Apple Pay competitor Softcard. That company is a joint venture backed by U.S. carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, and it offers support for payments through American Express, Chase, Wells Fargo, and other large financial institutions.

Google is looking to get back in the game after its Google Wallet service fell flat with consumers, and has since been trounced by Apple Pay. Facebook is also said to be on the market for potential mobile payment acquisitions, while Samsung was rumored last month to be in talks with startup company LoopPay, in hopes of debuting its own mobile payments service with wide compatibility this year.

Bankers also indicated to the Times that there are a number of smaller companies that are prime to be acquired, namely Dwolla and Paydiant.

In its quarterly earnings conference call this week, Apple touted the success of Apple Pay. Chief Executive Tim Cook went as far as to call 2015 "the year of Apple Pay," saying that he expects even more growth for the new service as 2015 progressive.

Initially, 500 banks and financial institutions pledged support for the service, but that number has swelled up to around 750, with even more requesting to partner up. Cook said Apple Pay now represents 80 percent of contactless transactions at Panera Bread, while upscale grocer Whole Foods saw a 400 percent increase in contactless payments since the service launched.

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

I don't get that, either.

I'd also love to be able to use my MasterCard Paypal Debit card with ?Pay.

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

Maybe PayPal is planning to launch a contact less method because some stores offer PayPal on their credit card machine as an option! I don't think it will see the success Apple pay is though

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

Apple pay is also for online transaction through app on the AppStore . You can buy clothes or anything else inside app that support it.

How are Apple Pay and Paypal competitors? One is geared towards online transactions via websites like eBay while the other is chiefly for making contactless in-person payments where there is a capacity to do so.

There is nothing stopping the usage of Apple Pay on web sites. Like wise PayPal can be extended for in person payments.

There's no way that Apple ever sells a "playstation level gaming" console for $149. Just no.

It is all a matter of desire and fast broadband. Slip an A8X into an Apple TV and you will be close to some of the older gaming systems, go A9X with DDR4 RAM and you could easily get the same performance levels as today's gaming systems. You wouldn't be able to support mass storage and would likely have to buffer games like Apple TV does movies. However $150 is very doable for similar performance.

It's just a brand on top of a new industry transaction standard being rolled out. This would've happened with or without Apple behind it. However, the reason it's getting a lot of attention and being adopted so quickly is because of Apple's branding power. Everyone is trying to jump on the bandwagon as soon as possible to get access to Apple's highly influential user base.

These articles make it sound as if ?Pay is it a disparate service in competition with other services - it's really not - albeit, it is indirectly in competition with those services that are trying to bypass the credit card companies, but that's not Apple's fight. The traditional financial institutions are merely making use of Apple's brand to "keep" their customers within the fold.

We all still have credit/debit cards and probably always will. What Apple has done with ?Pay is make payments intuitive, quick, private, and secure. This is something that Apple does best - take an existing market and enhance it to the benefit of their customers and spread desire and envy into the rest of the market, which then shortly follows along.

It's just a brand on top of a new industry transaction standard being rolled out.

You're missing out the fingerprint id. This isn't something that every manufacturer could have nor would have done and is a crucial element in ?Pay's security. Apple has a speed advantage in the payment process due to how they set it up. Every time Apple does something the right way, people dismiss it as something inevitable but given how many times Apple has done this sort of thing, that critique that it's just about marketing doesn't hold up.